Thursday/Friday
Wild Carol does Australia
John and Fiona Fraser
Sun 12 Jun 2011 11:17
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50:09.89N 5:05.09W
Sunday Morning
Apologies all for being slack in updating the blog.
It's a very wet and windy day here in Falmouth on Sunday morning so time
to catch up with the indoor jobs. Here's Graham's take on the last couple
of days sail into Falmouth. We had an excellent sail most of the
time. The first night was pretty horrible but it improved after that as we
got used to being without sleep. We averaged about 6.3 knots on
the trip which was pretty good going..anyway, here's Graham's story with some
pics to follow.
John
Graham
Well folks, Here we are on watch at 22:00 hrs
Thursday night .... the kids are off to bed and the men - John and I are.. on
the night shift - through the witching hour till 02:00 hrs Friday ... The moon
shone strong for us on the starboard side ....and ahead of us several patches of
potential squall ... we laughed in the face of such adversity ... sufficiently
to scare the offending weather onto the next shift ... and we enjoyed
fantastic sailing conditions ... a fair swell, but also fairly constant
winds around the 20 - 25 kn with the odd gust just to keep us on our toes...
>From the moment we took over, we experienced the company of numerous dolphins
... photos courtesy of JF ... and in the subsequent darkness of the
midnight hour, we saw these fantastic luminescent trails of the dolphins caused
by the phosphoresence in the water ... much like the Dementors from the Harry
Potter movies... stunning if you have never seen these before.. The
dolphins finally departed and we sailed on till watch change with the weather
building and us being thankful that the weather held ... the Gods obviously
looking after the righteous !!! We had a few interesting moments of night
identification of approaching and passing vessels ... lights green over white
... now what was that again ??? // oh aye some kind of fishing vessel ...
obviously .... we gave it the right treatment .... avoidance with little ado ...
and sailed on ... we were at one with the elements, and the world
at large .....
The lads Iain and Max came on at 02:00 hrs and the
skipper stayed up to give them a hand - Sail changes and stuff ... I went off to
my bunk and slept the sleep of the contented ( or damned ! ) .. hey ho another
day done .
For me Friday was another fine day - back on watch
at 06:00 hrs and the weather pretty average to say the least ... big swell from
the back end ( aft - behind - the West ) .. we worked the watch till 10:00
hrs and then stayed up for a fair while ...before packing in and awaiting
the brunch that Max would prepare ... usual fantastic fare of bacon, sausages, (
nae eggs !! ) (aye really - nae eggs !!!! ) and
toast ....( nae eggs !! ) michty - we had tae gie him a brain test ( Dive
ye ken fit's an egg, min ?? ) ... He wis a'recht tho' ... jist a wee
bitty dottled wi' a' that fresh air .... ... After some sleep I
awoke to an amazing change of weather - strong sunshine and warmth... the boat
wassailing Easterly along the South coast with a strong Westerly wind and
the guys had set Wild Carol up gull winged ( I would call it ) and we were
winging along great...
Time to get some rays as we sliced through the
waves ...and I got to drive all the way into Falmouth which was great ...
sail down and up the channel to the marina - where the Master and Commander
took over - which was just as well as we kind of skittered over the mud to reach
our berth .....Well that's all from me for now ...
  Night Watch
Navy Search and Rescue Practice off
Land's End - they buzzed us several times Max and the Longships Lighthouse off Lands
End  No, not dog poo! He's trying to get
more grip on his boots
 Longships again
 The MV Galatea - Trinity House buoy
maintenance ship - replacing buoy off Penzance
 Finally, the sun!
 Max at the helm in his buffalo wrestling pose
as we head east past The Lizard
 Falmouth at last!
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